1002 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER) 
335 
MAPES, THE HEN MAN. 
Story of a Day’s Work. 
Part T. 
T am glad to see Mr. Mapes’s articles in The R. N.-Y. 
I wish he would write an article giving an account of his 
daily routine, feeding and caring for fowls and chicks. I 
would like to know how he handles so many, and doubt¬ 
less many others would. geo. a. cosgrove. 
THE MORNING FEED.—Friday, April 25, is the 
date; Maple Dale Farm is the place, and Jesse E. 
Mapes the worker who furnishes the material for this 
chronicle of an actual day’s work on a farm. As 1 
lie trying to collect my scattered senses, and listening 
to the matin song of the birds, the clock strikes the 
half hour before six. The first thing, of course, is a 
brief lifting of the heart in thankfulness to the Great 
Protector, Whose eye never slumbers, and a putting 
of the hand afresh within the hand of the unerring 
Guide through life’s pathway. Our usual division of 
labor differs somewhat from this, but to-day, Jesse 
(my son and partner), proposes to take full charge of 
the poultry and pigs, while I care for the cows 
and horses. This will give us a chance to form 
some opinion of how much poultry it would 
require to furnish a full day’s work for a man, 
under better and more ideal conditions. He was 
up nearly a half hour ahead of me, and had 
things well under way when I reached the barn. 
While breakfast is being prepared he proceeded 
first to mix his morning batch of feed for the 
hens. There are 1,482 of them (recent count), 
and he dumps tour baskets of balanced ration 
into the box on the old buckboard. This weighs 
35 pounds to the basket, making 140 pounds in 
all; 100 quarts of skim-milk are then-poured on 
it, and the whole well mixed with a shovel. 
This takes about 15 minutes. Now for the pigs. 
There are about 40 of them, in different sizes 
and pens. He cannot feed them all at once, and 
they are soon making noise enough to turn a 
mill. A barrel of feed and a box of running 
water are conveniently located in the feed room. 
Nine Spring pigs, about two months old, come 
first. They get 4*4 pounds of feed wet with 
nine quarts of water. Next come six young 
sows, then two old sows, then one boar. These all 
get one pound each, wetted with two quarts of water. 
A pen of nine shotes, about ready for butchering, get 
the same, except that a little milk is added to the 
water for these, just enough to make it taste good, and 
induce them to eat with a relish. Our supply of milk 
is limited. Another old sow and her litter of un¬ 
weaned pigs get three pounds of feed, and a little 
milk allowance also. This completes the job, and 
quiet once more reigns, enabling the feeder to hear 
the toot of the breakfast horn. He passes the end of 
the long brooder house on his way to breakfast, giv¬ 
ing a pull on the end of a long wire projecting out 
through the siding. This takes about two seconds, 
and raises the small drop doors in each of the 
10 brooder apartments, admitting about 1,000 
chicks to the outdoor runs for exercise, fresh 
air, etc. 
FEEDING THE CHICKS.—The first job after 
breakfast is to feed the chicks in the brooder 
house. A barrel of balanced ration and a can of 
skim-milk stand convenient in the long hall as 
he enters. This hall runs the whole length 
(rear) of the 60-foot building, and is four feet 
wide. The first two pens contain about 100 
chicks each that are four weeks old. For these 
he dips about 1% pound of feed in his basin, and 
pours on enough skim-milk to wet it. After 
giving it a few stirs with his big iron spoon he 
is ready for business, but not more ready than 
the chicks on the other side of the wire parti¬ 
tion. To those who are not accustomed to it, 
the feeding of 1,000 chicks is an interesting 
sight. To us who are used to it it is only work. 
It requires a little skill to open the gate and 
step into a pen of 100 hungry chicks, without 
stepping on them, or allowing any of them to 
jump out into the hall. See him dash a morsel 
of feed through the wire gate, to the farthest corner 
of the pen. The wild scramble which follows, fur¬ 
nishes his opportunity to step inside and allow the 
spring to close the gate behind him. A hundred pairs 
of wings are instantly spread, and as many of his 
white pets land on his basin as can get a foothold. 
Brushing them gently aside, he places half of his feed 
in the trough, giving the remainder to the chicks in 
the next pen. Pens 3 ana 4 contain about the same 
number of chicks that are three weeks old. For these 
he mixes a little less of the feed, stiil less for pens 5 
and 6, which are two weeks old, and about 12 ounces 
for pens 7 and 8, which are only a week old. Pens 9 
and 10 are reserved for next hatch, now coming out 
of their shells. They will get water to drink, and 
bread crumbs moistened with milk to eat for first four 
or five days. After that they get same as the rest, 
and nothing else whatever except, grit, and water. This 
ends the morning’s duty for the chicks. 
INCUBATOR WORK.—The incubators come next. 
These are in another building, partly underground, 
also used as a shop. The first thing he does on en¬ 
tering is to light a lamp and take the reading of the 
thermometers. No. 1 read 103 degrees. These eggs 
have been set a week, and this heat would have been 
all right a few days ago during the hot wave, but it 
has now turned decidedly colder, and he gives the set 
screw a slight turn to the left. No. 2 is hatching to¬ 
day, and is not to be opened. The chicks are crowd¬ 
ing against the glass door so thick that it is almost 
impossible to see the thermometer. Passing to No. 3 
he reads 104 degrees. The animal heat in these eggs 
has raised the temperature since yesterday, but in 
view of the change in weather conditions, this is all 
right. The trays of eggs are next removed to the long 
work bench, the eggs turned and allowed to air while 
the lamps are trimmed and filled, when they are re¬ 
turned to the incubators and the doors closed. 
One Week Two Weeks. Four Weeks Old. 
Unfertilized on left; Fertilized on right. 
COW-PEA VINES. Fig. 128. 
THE HENS—It is now 6.30 A. M., and he is ready 
to feed the hens. By the time he has done a few odd 
chores about the barn, harnessed his horse to the 
buckboard, and got under way, it is seven o’clock. His 
tools are a small fire shovel for dipping the wet mash, 
a large iron spoon for scraping any dirt from the 
troughs, and a couple of feed pails. A medium-sized 
shovelful represents 12 ounces of dry feed, and his 
aim is to allow a shovelful of mash to each eight hens. 
Glancing at the figures on the inside of the door of 
pen No. 1 tells him that this flock contains 49 hens 
(last count) and he gives them six shovelfuls of mash, 
and opens the small drop door which allows them 
free range and a drink of water at the brook or pond. 
Unfertilized (Twelve Weeks Old). Fertilized. 
COW-PEA VINES. Fig. 129. 
There are 35 flocks, and this is repeated until all are 
served. He finds a few troughs that are damp, show¬ 
ing that yesterday’s supper had not been all eaten 
until morning. These have their allowance slightly 
reduced. By eight o’clock he is back to the barn, and 
has a couple of pails of feed left in his box. We have 
settled down to two feeds a day of this mash for the 
hens, and nothing else except what little grass, grit, 
water, etc., they find in the fields. Price of wheat 
and corn has got so high that we find the balanced 
ration at $30 per ton is less expensive, and I expect 
less sickness and better health than where grain is 
kept constantly before them. Jesse only found two 
dead chicks under the brooders this morning, and no 
dead hens. This is rather less than our usual mor¬ 
tality. Crushed oyster shells are always kept scat¬ 
tered about in abundance. o. w. mares. 
“ FORM-TREt FRUIT CULTURE." 
Pleasant Work for Amateurs. 
Part III. 
The points to be borne in mind are that, naturally, 
the sap favors the higher points, the end of branches; 
the upper branches as against the lower. The leaves 
draw the sap on; the longer we leave a branch and 
the more buds we leave on it the more leaves we shall 
get on it. If we have two branches of equal length 
and for some reason desire one to grow longer and 
stronger than the other, we have to cut back the 
former one less (or not at all) than the latter. All 
branches should grow in such a direction that they 
form with the trunk an angle of 45 degrees; if they 
stand farther away we draw them closer with a band 
of raffia; if closer, we use a spreader, cutting a stick 
of wood with two sharp chisel edges at the ends, 
using it horizontally, bracing it in the cleft of the 
branch. Without pruning, a branch would, if vertical, 
on account of the free and unobstructed flow of sap, 
develop the upper half of its buds only into 
shoots; therefore, if we want shoots all around 
it we must cut half back. A horizontal branch, 
on account of the flow of the sap being greatly 
retarded, would not have to be cut back at all; 
a branch at an angle of 45 degrees would nor¬ 
mally bring shoots from two-thirds of its buds. 
Such a branch we cut back one-third only. 
The Summer pruning is very important; in 
fact, if that is done properly, there should not 
be any need of much Winter pruning, as far as 
fruit twigs are concerned. We observe in the 
Spring following the first pruning of the 
brancnes of the first series that the buds at the 
end of the branches, nearest the cut-off, shoot 
out first and strongest; the one right below the 
continuation of the branch we check in its 
growth by pinching the green end off when it 
has five or six leaves, leaving only three leaves; 
the next two below the same way. The sap 
checked temporarily by this pinching is forced 
upon the buds below these. If any of the lower 
buds should not have made shoots by about Au¬ 
gust 1, we force these out by the above-men¬ 
tioned crescent cuts, this crescent having a milder ef¬ 
fect in August than in Spring. We use it in Spring to 
force out strong shoots for branches, while in August 
it gives us weaker shoots for fruit twigs. When these 
fruit twigs have grown to a length of six to eight 
inches we pinch them back to four or five inches. 
After awhile the bud in the angle of the last leaf (at 
the end of the shoot) produces a new shoot; here we 
give a second pinching when this last shoot is three or 
four inches long, reducing it to about 2 y 2 inches. If 
after awhile there should be a third shoot from the 
end of this second one we pinch nearly all of it off 
after it has grown two or three inches. The purpose 
is to have these fruit twigs as thin as possible, as 
weak shoots produce fruit buds quicker than 
strong ones. If any of the shoots coming from 
branches and destined for fruit twigs show in 
their very beginning a tendency to grow too 
vigorously (being thicker tnan others; we pinch 
them back earlier, leaving only about two 
inches the first time. The second new shoot 
from these we prune back when about five or 
six inches long, to four or five inches. If these 
green fruit shoots after being pinched should 
make two or more side shoots, we have to cut 
them back to a point close above the lowest 
side shoot, otherwise these many shoots would 
draw too much sap to the fruit branch, making 
it stronger than is desired. After the leaves 
have fallen, we cut the fruit twigs bacK to about 
finger length, leaving three or four buds. 
A finished pyramid has five branches in five 
different directions beginning about. a foot 
above the ground; a foot above another series, 
and so on, and every one of these branches, if 
properly trained, is garnished along its whole 
length with fruit twigs (the yearly pruning 
back of the branches preventing the withering 
of the fruit twigs), one series having its branches 
between the branches of the next series, allowing 
light, air and sun to reach all the parts of the 
tree, and we must claim, therefore, that a correctly 
trained pyramid has many more fruit twigs, and thus 
can produce more fruit than a standard. By keeping 
the fruit twigs short we keep the fruit nearer the 
branches, i. e., nearer the main circulation of the sap, 
getting larger and better developed fruit, and as we 
are thinning the fruit out to a normal numDer, not 
more than the tree can properly nourish and bring to 
perfection, we leave to the tree strength enough to 
both produce fruit and fruit buds for the next year, 
getting an average crop regularly every year, instead 
of, as is the case with standards, a fruit year suc¬ 
ceeded by an off year. Furthermore, we plant stand¬ 
ards 30 feet apart and more, and as a distance of 10 
(the highest 12) feet is sufficient for pyramids, it will 
be seen that we can plant three pyramids in the same 
space where we plant but one standard. 
HENRY R. WIRTH. 
